Providing Dignified End For Nixon Closes Tough Chapter In America's History

KINGSLEY GUY

April 30, 1994|KINGSLEY GUY Editorial Page Editor

In his eulogy to Richard M. Nixon Wednesday, President Bill Clinton said Nixon "never gave up being part of the action and passion of the times."

President Clinton borrowed some of his words from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.: "As life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share in the passion and action of his time at peril of being judged not to have lived."

The passion and action of Holmes' time included the Civil War. A Union officer, Holmes was gravely wounded on three separate occasions. Yet after each brush with death he returned to the fight. Nixon was gravely wounded three times during his political battles. In 1960 he was defeated for the presidency by John F. Kennedy (who loved the above quote by Holmes, as apparently does Clinton, whose political career was inspired by Kennedy). Nixon was gravely wounded again in his 1962 loss to Pat Brown in the race for governor of California, and still again in 1974 when he quit the presidency in disgrace as a result of the Watergate scandal.

Each time Nixon recovered, and all but his most dour critics will admit that his life ended in triumph. He rose from a disgraced ex-president to a respected elder statesman whose views were sought out by his successors, and others who exercise great political power.

Nixon's final victory was the most implausible. Most Americans who watched the farewell address to his Cabinet and aides 20 years ago figured he would disappear into oblivion, and be remembered as one of the nation's worst presidents. But in that address Nixon revealed how he would overcome the Watergate shame: "Always remember," he said, "others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them - and then you destroy yourself."The karmic comment sounded like something from Gandhi, not Nixon.

For the last two decades he followed his own advice. Nixon never blamed others for the Watergate disaster and he refrained from berating his critics, whose hatred toward him still simmers.

He refused to burden taxpayers with the cost of ongoing Secret Service protection or the upkeep of his library. He never profited from sitting on corporate boards or accepting payment for speeches. Nixon wrote prodigiously, and his books revealed his enormous grasp of world affairs.

Wednesday's funeral service was a fitting tribute to the man. He was honored by the presence of the four surviving ex-presidents, whose faces showed the strain of having served in the highest office in the land. Billy Graham's sermon struck an appropriate religious tone. The eulogies by Henry Kissinger, Sen. Bob Dole, California Gov. Pete Wilson and President Clinton were all well-tailored and sincere.

The tears shed by Dole let Americans know that even the stiffest politicians are human, and the unplanned revelation that he has emotions could help Dole's own presidential ambitions.

President Clinton, who has a keen sense of history, understood the symbolism of his presence. An anti-war protester during the Vietnam era, Clinton was the antithesis of Nixon. Now, a generation later, he eulogized a man whom he had come to respect.

"May the day of judging President Nixon on anything less than his entire life and career come to a close," Clinton said, implicity recognizing Nixon's enormous contributions in both foreign and domestic policy.

The dignified funeral of a man who had been an integral part of American politics for nearly half a century put many of us in touch with our own mortality. And the dignified words of the sitting president let us know that the final chapter on the Vietnam and Watergate era has been closed.